The present invention relates to methods of cutting textile material into garment-pattern shaped pieces, and more particularly the cutting of such pieces from thin paper sheet pattern pieces on which is inscribed a cutting line which conforms to the desired shape of the pieces to be cut. Fabrication of garments from paper sheet pattern pieces of this kind is quite common, particularly as practiced by housewives or househusbands at home using commercially available pattern pieces.
In the prior art, the common way in which such pattern pieces were employed in the fabrication of a garment was to use a plurality of straight pins which were forced through the pattern and the cloth in order to hold the pattern piece in association with the cloth during cutting. The use of these straight pins was subject to many disadvantages, particularly in that the thinness of the thin paper sheet pattern pieces and of many textile materials to be cut led to a ripping of the pattern piece and a pulling or marring of the surface of the material to be cut. With the advent of knits and double knit fabrics, the problem experienced in pinning pattern pieces to material of this kind has been greatly increased. Additionally, the now common use of bold plaid fabric designs in many garments makes the job of precisely positioning these pattern pieces with respect to the plaids far more difficult than the same method when practiced on a solid fabric or on a fabric featuring a small repetitive design. Consequently, in order to match the plaids between adjacent pattern pieces in a finished garment, it has now become necessary to more precisely position and hold the pattern pieces prior to and during the cutting operation.
A second drawback of the prior pinning operation was that, due to the tendency of the thin paper pattern sheet to rip and to buckle, many pins were needed to be used across the entire face of the thin paper pattern piece in order to ensure a smooth and even laying down and holding of the pattern piece to the material. Since the fabrication of garments often requires that various puckers or folds, which in the art are called "darts", be sewn in individual fabric pieces, most thin paper sheet pattern pieces indicate the location of dart lines on their surface. These dart lines differ from pattern lines in that no cutting along these lines is intended. Nonetheless, since following the cutting operation, the thin paper pattern piece is normally removed from the material, it is necessary to mark these dart lines by some means on the fabric. According to one method, one end of the thin paper sheet pattern piece is pinned to the fabric while the home sewer lifts up the other end repeatedly, estimating the position of the dart line with respect to the face of the fabric, and marking the fabric with pins. This method of marking dart lines on the fabric is, however, very approximate and does not usually produce a satisfactory result. A second alternative method which has gained some acceptance is the use of tracing paper together with tracing wheels. According to this method, sheets of tracing paper are placed between the pattern and the fabric to be marked and a marking wheel is run over the top of the pattern so that its depression along the dart line will produce a similar image on the fabric. Heretofore, the use of tracing paper in the cutting of fabrics has been disadvantaged by the fact that many pins were required across the entire surface of the paper, making it impossible to slide the tracing paper between the layer of fabric and the thin paper sheet pattern piece without laborious unpinning and repinning in order to ensure that the pattern piece does not slide with respect to the underlying fabric.
Additionally, prior art methods of pinning and cutting fabric pieces left as an end result composite fabric pieces with a plurality of pins protruding therefrom. Since each piece of textile material is identified by the markings appearing on the thin paper sheet pattern piece which is pinned thereto, it is not normally desirable to remove the thin paper sheet pattern piece from the fabric prior to incorporating the fabric into the garment. Since it is usually desirable to lay out and cut an entire garment prior to beginning the fabrication process, the result of this prior art cutting method is the compilation of a plurality of composite fabric pieces. The storage of these pieces prior to the fabrication of the garment is hampered by the fact that the pins protruding therefrom are likely to tear the adjoining paper sheet pattern piece if the sewer attempts to stack these composite pieces on one another. Of course, when fragile fabric is employed, this problem is magnified by the likelihood of pulling or otherwise marring the textile fabric. Therefore, it is not uncommon for a sewer to individually spread each of the garment-pattern shaped composite pieces around the working area in order to avoid this problem. Unfortunately, while reducing the likelihood of pin damage, this method has the further drawback of exposing the textile material to soiling. Heretofore, no prior art method has provided a satisfactory means of storing these composite fabric pieces prior to their incorporation in the completed garment.
Recently, some of the disadvantages discussed above with respect to the precise positioning of thin paper sheet pattern pieces on the textile material have been overcome through the use of magnetic objects and magnetically attractable objects which grip the thin paper sheet pattern pieces therebetween. By using two of these gripping sets to grip the thin paper sheet pattern piece it is possible is exert divergent forces along the plane of the pattern and then to place the pattern on the material. Unfortunately, this method of positioning a pattern piece with respect to the material does not aid in the cutting of that material since there is no positive engagement between the thin paper sheet pattern piece and the material itself. This method of adjusting a pattern with respect to a textile material prior to cutting is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,837,084 which issued on Sept. 24, 1974.